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LATEST ARTICLES
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The Siena-based bank has a better bill of health and is once again a target in Italy.
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New accounts targeted at low-income customers reflects the reality of intense competition in the sector.
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BBVA’s bid for Banco Sabadell didn’t appear to be going well when its share price slumped after the announcement. Then Sabadell rejected the offer despite the substantial premium to its own share price.
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The standards-setter has come under fire for announcing plans to allow companies to offset Scope 3 emissions as part of net-zero targets. But this kind of compromise has always been inevitable.
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First investment-grade debt capital markets started to pick up. Then it was high yield and now IPOs, as well as announced M&A
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President Javier Milei campaigned on cuts – and that is what he has delivered. But like all extreme diets, the approach is unsustainable. Time to rethink the plan.
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The newest ESG trend in retail banking might be a niche offering for now, but all banks will have to take it seriously someday.
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There are sensible elements to CEO Slawomir Krupa’s plans for Societe Generale, but their communication needs attention.
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Diego De Giorgi’s arrival as Standard Chartered’s CFO coincides with a shift away from asset shrinkage and a “final push” on digital transformation.
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Even after the rally on its latest restructuring plan, investors still value the UK bank at such a wide discount to book that management must consider radical action.
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The hard graft of integrating Credit Suisse still lies ahead, leaving UBS as a concept stock and hopeful investors looking through the efforts of the next three years.
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Banks need to start quantifying the legal risks of both climate action and inaction.
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New entrants spur breadth and depth in the country’s capital markets.
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Restrictions may come at a cost as MSCI considers developed market status.
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At the start of 2023, analysts sized China and liked what they saw: an economy reopening after three years of Covid isolation, and ready once again to roar. Nothing of the sort has happened and corporates and institutional investors are now fleeing the market in droves.
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Thailand wants to give almost every adult in the country money through a digital wallet. It’s an interesting step towards bringing digital finance to the mainstream.
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Climate change is real and so are the EU’s disclosure rules.
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The local sector is in good shape to weather a short-term conflict. If the war drags on and spreads throughout the region, however, the position is far less clear.
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Rakuten needs money – and lots of it – as its mobile telecommunications arm continues to burn cash. But it is running out of things to sell, while its debt profile is miserable.
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A $3.5 billion deal attracts $36 billion of demand, answering the question of whether Swiss banks can return to this market after Credit Suisse's collapse.
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While no charges have been laid against the Adani Group, a new Sebi rulebook addresses a key concern that came from the January stock-market controversy.
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KVS Manian has been overlooked in favour of ex-Barclays man Ashok Vaswani. What does it mean for one of India’s finest banks?
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The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
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Pressure is growing on Japan’s self-imposed caps on government bond yields. Positive rates must be around the corner, but what will that mean for banks and public debt?
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While foreign investment in China has fallen, supply-chain shift is a different story. Rather than transferring their main production away from China, manufacturers are cultivating deep regional supply chains across Asia and beyond.
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Record sustainable finance issuance will still only get you so far.
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Even as the industry pleads its solidity, accidents keep happening.
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MUFG’s vast balance sheet has the potential to make a considerable difference to Japan’s net-zero ambitions. But the bank won’t be pulling back from polluters, arguing that money needs to flow to where emissions are, not away from them.
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The Lebanese diaspora has come home to pump fresh cash into the country’s economy, but the resulting price surge is a further blow to the lira-earning population.
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Slawomir Krupa may yet turn around Societe Generale. But it won’t be by shock and awe.
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A Citi survey of family offices finds some unsurprising things to say about the worries of the wealthy – inflation, interest rates and geopolitics – but discovers a shocking lack of preparation for succession planning.
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Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.
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Working together, regulated banks and direct lenders may prevent the coming default cycle from turning into a full-blown credit crunch.
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A debate in Australia arguing for the liquidation of the sovereign wealth fund has relevance to the global fund community.
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A handwritten note brings down the curtain on a 38-year journey for bank founder.
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Two new platforms show how India is building on top of its digital foundations.
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Good things could be in store for Libya if harmony at the central bank spreads to the government and sovereign fund.
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The Kingdom’s government has announced that international firms – many of whom are based in Dubai – that want to work with the state will need to base their regional headquarters in Saudi.
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The activist shareholder highlights concerns about a former poster child for private equity ownership of banks.
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Regulators forced banks to skip dividends during Covid, but let them make up payouts later on. They should now do the same for AT1s or risk that market failing.
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The global disclosure recommendations don’t stand a chance against mandated regional regulation.
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Banks are not waiting for loans to stop performing before they sell them.
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If Olam Agri’s planned dual-listing IPO goes ahead in June it will have a bit of everything: a Singapore-Saudi listing, geopolitics and sovereign funds jostling to defend their nations against strain in global food security.
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JPMorgan has cleaned up in a deal that sees the regulators waive their own cap on 10% deposit ownership.
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Pouncing on a firm with lots of corporate broking relationships at the low point for IPOs is a smart trade.
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Proceeds raised in the first three months of this year were 99% lower than the amount raised at the start of 2021.
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The Credit Suisse deal may have merely accelerated Hamers’ anticipated departure.
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The failure of venture capital’s favourite bank is bad news for a sector reliant on new injections of cheap capital to sustain loss-making growth.
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First Abu Dhabi Bank’s recent interest in a bid for Standard Chartered and an ill-fated investment in Credit Suisse by Saudi National Bank have put the spotlight on Middle East banks as potential acquirers of international firms.
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It has been over a decade and a half since a Chinese financial institution bought or invested in a Western counterpart. Beijing sees the West’s banking system as incomprehensibly chaotic and messy, and its own – albeit flawed – as a bastion of stability.
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Recent events call into question most of the core assumptions behind the rules designed to keep banks safe through a liquidity squeeze.
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UBS’s integration of Credit Suisse will be a long and uncertain process, but keeping the latter’s Swiss universal bank may mean the deal eventually comes good.
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Bankers have been at pains to stress how different the world is today from the dark days of 2008: higher capital; more liquidity; lower credit risk and all that. But while individual banks may be safer than they were, collectively they arguably now face a worse existential crisis. Societies face awkward questions about how they value the utility of the banking sector – and how they should pay for it.
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HSBC runs towards the storm as others are fleeing it.
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The EU green bond standard is understandably broad. But because of this, the limits between sustainable and transition finance remain unclear.
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Don’t expect a flood of IPOs, but there are still placements across Asia Pacific.
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A month ago, First Abu Dhabi Bank said it had looked at Standard Chartered but decided against a bid. Now, it is believed to have changed its mind. What has changed?
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Some issuers are grabbing the opportunities offered by a new capital markets year. Others would do well to face reality sooner rather than later.
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It seems difficult to convince investors that higher bank profits are sustainable.
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Asset managers are spooked by mandatory disclosure regulations coming into force in January. This is good news for the anti-greenwashing campaign, not so much for biodiversity lovers.
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On December 1, EU member states agreed on a general approach for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. The final text shields banks from their full responsibility to prevent environmental harm, thanks in part to France’s post-Brexit ambitions.
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The first nine months of 2022 have seen investment banking revenues plummet globally.
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The World Cup is set to kick off in Doha on November 20 against the backdrop of recession, war, inflation and rising interest rates elsewhere.
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Asia’s central banks have fought hard to protect the value of their currencies this year as the dollar has soared. But each of them has a limit to their appetite for that defence.
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China, the US, Australia and Japan are all conducting a curious courtship with Pacific nations, hoping to build trade relationships, climate resilience and security agreements.
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For one, it brings power to its digital operations, for the other a much-needed injection of funds. But it doesn’t change a grim operating environment.
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Clearing up after the government’s mess will only provide a short break in the repricing of UK risk.
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China has in the past felt compelled to accept the terms of IMF programmes in struggling nations without due consideration of its own views.
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The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brutally exposed the fragility of global supply chains.
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As the world’s biggest investment banks prepare to report third-quarter earnings in October, the signals are bad across the board.
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Anti-ESG boycotts are unlikely to cross the Atlantic.
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Bank of Cyprus has its quirks – such as a sanctioned oligarch as a large shareholder – but it is far from the only European bank with good potential still shunned by mainstream investors.
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Chinese investors are buying bonds issued by local government financing vehicles as fast as they’re printed – due to a cratered property sector, a lack of other buying options and a perception it’s a safe asset class. But analysts warn LGFV defaults are imminent and could result in a wave of credit events.
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The government is prepared to take drastic measures to reduce the nitrogen produced by livestock. But as farmers resist being pushed out of a profitable sector, the dispute demonstrates the cost of turning climate agendas into a race to cut emissions as quickly as possible.
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In a desperate effort to catch the next boom in assets with no fundamental value, institutional investors are hunting for new ways into crypto – and asset managers seem only too happy to supply them.
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A just transition should protect smaller firms from paying the price for the carbon emissions of larger ones.
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While Germany fires up its coal-burning power stations once more, it’s almost as if the country itself is protesting.
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Will higher rates today come at the price of more pain tomorrow?
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Companies that publicly commit to net zero by 2030 need to be held accountable for those commitments. That won’t happen until their carbon footprint becomes publicly available data.
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The idea of capping the price of Russian oil and gas exports sounds good in theory, but it might be better to test methods for energy rationing.
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Stress tests mean that banks must assess their own climate impact. The glaring data gaps will close as the science progresses and methodologies evolve.
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The first three months of the year have been tough for many investment banking business lines, but Europe’s banks are putting up a good fight against the might of the US firms.
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The Swiss bank is still paying for its misdeeds, but this might be a taste of what’s to come for others.
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The pressure for a short-term boost to ROE might force Bradesco to re-evaluate its insurance portfolio.
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Crédit Agricole’s purchase of a 9.18% in Banco BPM could have benefits, even if it doesn’t presage a full takeover.
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Private equity’s relationship with the Spac asset class? It’s complicated.
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A combination of geographical position and commodity strength is working in the country’s favour.
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Corporates want to improve sustainability in their supply chains, but, if anything, the barriers to doing so are getting worse.
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Western governments hope Russian citizens will blame the regime of president Vladimir Putin and seek change. That is a gamble.
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Why do Saudi Arabia and Malaysia still overwhelm every other state in Islamic asset management?
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It’s rare to see a sovereign fund backing a digital bank before its launch.
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The first month of 2022 has seen not so much a mean reversion as a collapse in investment banking revenues. Investors must hope this won’t continue.
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The rationale behind a bank buyback can be different in emerging versus developed markets.
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Last year, social was top of the ESG agenda. Today, it barely merits a mention.
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Falls in bond and equity prices that followed the Fed’s hawkish pivot may just be the start, with the key test still to come in new issue markets.
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Southeast Asia markets enjoyed a record 2021. Can they build on this?
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BNP Paribas has in effect ruled out using the proceeds of its US retail bank sale on big bank M&A in Europe.
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Executive chairman Ana Botín will be under pressure after adverse ruling in Madrid
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Rebooting the financial system with a new currency could be what’s needed to give Argentina’s economy a way forward.
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One of the strongest themes of COP26 was the involvement of the private sector on an unprecedented scale. What happens next?
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The Morgan Stanley veteran is a sound pick, but is an old-school investment banker the right person to run the world’s largest wealth manager?
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There is no shortage of great ideas in digitalizing trade finance. If only all these systems and programmes would talk to one another.
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Perhaps it is not such a strange time to bet billions on Turkey’s economy.
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The Thai bank takes a step forward in its strategy to upgrade to a financial technology group.
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Intense competition for assets means that risk is being mispriced.
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The hard truth is that in much of the developing world, climate change still ranks well below more immediate concerns such as unemployment, disease, poverty and political unrest for households and businesses.
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A new pledge to use foreign reserves to buy ESG assets is one of many institutional measures in Japan. But the country has still not realized its green potential at the corporate level.
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China unveiled a plan for its first national parks on Friday, the final day of the COP15 conference in Kunming. It reveals the weight of Party concerns about pollution and biodiversity fragmentation, and their impact on political stability.
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The banking sector will never pick its way through the climate change jungle without harmonized regulations. To meet global risks, a global sector needs global standards. It is time for Basel V.
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With in-house asset managers in vogue, UniCredit chief executive Andrea Orcel might try to revisit the bank’s sale of Pioneer to Amundi.
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The rising price of oil and gas in this recovery underlines the need for much greater investment in clean energy.
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President Joe Biden’s next round of regulatory nominations might make this year’s surge of regional bank M&A short lived.
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Investors must understand the limits of regulatory efforts to measure climate stress at banks.
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Relief on dividends is not enough to propel the sector back to greatness.
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Brazil’s central bank attempts to redress the country’s woeful environmental reputation with climate-related stress tests.
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Evergrande is in trouble, drowning in debt and besieged by angry investors. It is bad news for shareholders, but it also raises harder and darker questions about investing in China.
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Other Latin American countries watch with interest as El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment gets off to a faltering start.
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DeFi is not a strategic asset allocation for mainstream investors yet, but big gains on cryptos and now high yields are drawing in the front runners.
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Deutsche Bank’s restructuring has not been thrown off course by the pandemic, but upside surprises can hide risks. Discipline will be needed to avoid the temptations of the past.
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No access to reserves, sinking currency, soaring inflation. Now what?
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The new SDR programme raises more questions than it answers.
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In September, the EU will issue bills through the auction system operated by the Banque de France for the French Trésor. But they will not immediately be a reference safe asset for European capital markets.
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ESG issues are part of the package with emerging market sovereign bonds.
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The European Commission keeps pressing, but a consolidated tape for bonds is not yet realistic – and firms should use AI analytics to create a quasi-tape.
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Many are still a long way from understanding the risk climate change poses to their businesses.
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The closer central banks come to hard design choices over retail central bank digital currencies, the less clear cut the case is to proceed with them.
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Banks received a mostly clean bill of health from the Federal Reserve’s latest stress tests. After a catastrophe like Covid, does that mean the sector is now safe?
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Bank CEOs do not like it, but the regulators are fostering competition.
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Naysayers were swift to condemn Lithuanian involvement in the German scandal.
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The Spac bubble has burst, and while European exchanges try to attract more deals, sponsors that listed in the boom will soon be struggling.
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With the acquisition of 80 east coast branches and a slug of online deposits, Citizens has added even more firepower to its national expansion ambitions.
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With Goldman and AmBank behind it, Malaysia aims further afield with lawsuits.
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Norway pulls out of West Bank-linked companies; Mubadala and Temasek invest in tech and energy.
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Other funds have shown how shareholder activism can work in financial stocks, especially in Europe.
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While doubling of profit at the investment bank stood out, it was not the bank’s only strong performer.
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In recent years, Brazil has endured famine, flood and pestilence. What’s next?
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Anthony Tan’s 60% control of the Singaporean fintech’s voting power shows what founders can get away with when spared the rigour of an IPO.
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If the current geopolitical tensions escalate into military action, even the most hardened foreign investors might start looking for an exit from Russia.
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Deals such as this leave deeper problems unsolved at Societe Generale and similar banks.
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Eagerly courted high-growth private companies will likely go to experienced Spac sponsors that know the route to high valuations.
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While a bid still remains for duration, the EU could achieve much for member states through more flexible borrowing in short-dated instruments.
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Activist investor victory may open the floodgates for shareholder challenges against Japanese corporate management.
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The data-cloud company has laid down an intriguing marker for its peers
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Deliveroo’s pending stock sale gives London a much-needed financial boost, but the global IPO market is becoming a straight fight between China and the US.
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IPO volumes for special purpose acquisition companies have been extraordinary since the start of 2020, but looking at them through the lens of future M&A is when they start to look most shocking.
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OCBC, UOB and DBS are among the first lenders in Asia to report 2020 numbers. They’re in surprisingly good shape.
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Milton Maluhy officially became Itaú’s new CEO at the beginning of February. He now faces the challenge of cutting the bank down to size.
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The Churchill Capital deal for electric vehicle maker Lucid was long rumoured. The share price fall when it was confirmed raises questions for regulators.
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The burgeoning industry demands instant experts, but everyone has to start somewhere.
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As the unlisted firm shrinks further in investment banking, its asset management business might IPO on its own.
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The bank's management is confident that pandemic losses will be contained.
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Mobilization of angry hordes is easy: those wishing to keep order are already being left behind.
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As policymakers worry about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, companies and asset managers are still working out how to make sense of them.
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The bubbles in crypto and small-caps look obvious, but most markets are over-inflated and it is a fantasy that banks are immune to the risks.
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The ECB is desperate for banking consolidation. Cross-border deals remain unlikely, but wholesale combinations may be coming.
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Less pain in the downturn means less gain in an upturn.
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More Asian entrepreneurs are going to New York to raise money for Spac listings. Should Singapore’s SGX seek to intercept these listings?
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Asset managers and owners are scrutinizing firms’ climate commitments like never before, as HSBC is discovering.
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After a good year in the banking industry for the many who are now looking forward to high bonuses, the threat of redundancy may seem remote. They should beware.
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Turkey has been the outlier in CEE this year for many reasons.
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Three presidents in a month isn’t enough to deter buyers of the country’s century bond.
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Jean Pierre Mustier and António Horta-Osório join Tidjane Thiam as the outsiders who rescued national champions before departing.
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Trade deal brings together 15 Asian nations; banks jostle to benefit.
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Pre-2008 M&A mistakes still stand in the way of a bolder bank purchase such as Banco BPM.
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The bond market could be the answer to financing better preparedness for the next global pandemic.
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As the world cheered news of a potential Covid-19 vaccine in early November, important steps were being taken on equitable manufacture and distribution as well.
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Brazil’s central bank launches a free instant-payments tool.
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One of the biggest capital markets stories this year has been the rise of social bonds.
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One of the solutions to the looming sovereign debt crisis could be to link financing to natural capital or climate adaptation.
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In a year of shocks and surprises, it’s hard to say where Mexico’s economic and financial performance ranks – but it’s up there.
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Absence makes the heart grow fonder as rare deal attracts blue-chip names
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Italy’s biggest bank is floundering because it is based on a flawed premise.
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The outgoing CEO’s surprisingly good final results mean his successor has less room for manoeuvre.
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A bank with a profitable core business is a better bet than one designed to lose money.
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For the wealthy among us, it has mostly been a good pandemic.
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Chile’s new financial portability law came into effect in September, providing a huge shot in the arm to financial innovation in Latin America’s most stable banking market.
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Nothing in China is straightforward, but everything happens for a reason.